The Inevitability
by Sonochu
Summary: A school counselor has joined Casper High's staff and he has a job like no other: Help Danny through his miserable love life. A tale of a typical romance told in a not so typical manner. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.**

* * *

The school counselor was probably one of the most under-appreciated jobs anyone can think of. I knew this, of course, but that didn't stop me from taking the position when it was offered to me. What can I say? Money fuels all decisions, it also provides a form of financial security for me. I even grew to like the job. Sure, it required me having to deal with sappy teenage drama and the likes, but I also got to meet some truly terrific people and actually make a difference, if only minor, in some of their lives. Even to this day, though, I couldn't decide where one Danny Fenton fit into all of this.

We've only talked a few times. The first was definitely one of the most confusing conversations I've ever had. It was a lonely Tuesday morning when the boy walked into my office, panting heavily and leaning most of his weight onto his right leg before sitting down in the chair opposite of me. He was definitely a little worse for the wear. In fact, my first thought was that the boy wanted help with some bullies. It was a well known fact that Dash Baxter, the captain of the football team here at Casper High, liked to pick on the weaker kids in his grade. That's why the boy's next words truly shocked me.

"I-I know this girl," he began a little timidly, staring out the window next to my desk, "and I think she likes me back. Well, at least a part of me anyway. I'm just not sure what to do about it. Is it wrong for her to only like a part of me back?"

To say I was dumbfounded would be an understatement. I was almost tempted to bring up the bruises forming on the kid's arms considering they were a more pressing matter. Then I realized how nervous and fidgety he looked. He'd only run away if I asked. I needed to gain his trust first. "Can you be a little more specific?" I eventually asked. "What do you mean by her liking only a part of you? Does she like your sense of humor or something?"

The kid averted his eyes once more and began to rub the back of his neck. "Let's say I act very differently outside of school."

Well if this different personality caused him to get hurt, I really didn't want to leave it there. I followed my plan anyway. "So she likes your personality outside of school, right? It's inside of school that's the problem."

He nodded.

"And does anyone else know about this?"

He hesitated to speak. "I don't think she even knows about it, sir. My friend said I should give up on her because she doesn't like me for who I really am, but I'm not sure if that's the case anymore."

My confusion was just getting worse and worse. I wish the kid would talk to me straight. At least then I would be having such a headache thinking everything over. "It's normal for teens your age not to know who they are yet. That's one of the things that makes you a teen. With age you'll figure it out."

He thought about it for a minute. "Sir, let's say I could only become one of two people. One had the personality similar to the way I am at school, the other acted like the way I am outside of school. What should I do?"

This kid really liked putting my mind through a blender, didn't he? I tried to not let the sigh that escaped show too much. "Right now who do you want to be more like?"

This time he didn't even hesitate when he said, "The way I act outside of school."

"And she doesn't know your two personalities are linked?"

He nodded once more.

I carefully thought out my next response based on the information I had. "I suppose you're not really being fair to the girl. I mean if you like the girl, shouldn't you be willing to give her a chance, let her clearly see both sides of you and let her draw her own opinions? The way you're setting it up now is bound to fail."

The boy stood rock solid for several seconds. I was a little worried I may have angered him. "Y-You're right, sir," he eventually admitted.

"Then ask her on a date outside of school and see what happens. As long as you let her see both parts of you and tell her they're a packaged deal, the worst that can happen is you learn she doesn't like you."

A lopsided, if weary, grin formed on his face before he stood up. "Thanks for the help, sir. I'll tell you how it goes after."

Just as the boy was about to leave the threshold of my room, I finally decided to bring up his injuries. "Er, is someone hitting you?"

The kid gave me a weird look and showed me the scars along both his arms. "Oh, these? I tripped on some rocks about a week ago," he said that with a nervous smile that told me he was lying. Should I push it? He obviously didn't want me to.

I gave the boy a once over, noticing how aged most of the scars appeared. Nothing looked too recent too really worry about. Against my better judgement, I decided to let the topic rest. At least for now. There was another question still bugging me though. "So who's this girl anyway?"

He turned a little crimson and let out a weak laugh to hide his embarrassment. "Paulina Sanchez. Didn't I mention that earlier?"

No, no he hadn't. This revelation made me increasingly nervous over the advice I had given him. It wasn't that it was bad advice. If it were any other girl, I wouldn't have cared. Unfortunately for the both of us Paulina was a piece of work, and, no offence to the kid, there was little chance she'd ever go for him. Well, he did say he had a different personality outside of school. Maybe she somehow found it attractive. Stranger things have occurred in Amity Park.

A week flew by with nothing changing. Kids seemed to be coming in increasing number every day, asking about some problem or another, usually they weren't too serious, but the raven haired boy's conversation always came back to me. Apparently the kid never asked her or was rejected because they never did get together, at least as far as I could tell. Ironically when the kid finally returned after the week was up, he looked happier than before, happier than I ever remembered seeing him. Did something happen that I just wasn't aware of? It was possible, however unlikely, that the kid's plan did work, buy they were seeing each other in secret. Paulina was obsessed with her own reputation, so she wouldn't risk her entire persona on a measly crush. She probably wouldn't even risk doing it in secret. The kid must've done something though.

Another note was that the bruising and scars on the kid's skin were no longer there. Maybe he really did get injured in some freak accident. Either way, I was definitely going to keep an eye on him just to be positive.

The boy began talking about some of the recent ghost attacks, a common conversation starter, to the point where everyone would forgo the usual 'How's the weather?' for a 'Did you hear about the latest ghost attack?'. And so we talked about some minor things for several minutes until the conversation quickly turned serious.

"I think my friend is mad at me for asking out Paulina," the kid said.

I scratched the growing stubble on my chin. So he asked her out after all. "Mind if I ask which of your friends?"

"Sam, Sam Manson. We've been close friends since middle school. I wouldn't be surprised if she thinks of me as the brother she never had."

"And how do you feel about her?"

"It's," he paused for a second, "complicated. I don't know how else to describe it, really. I like her a lot; she just doesn't seem to reciprocate those feelings. Is it wrong of me not to want to wait forever for her? Shouldn't I try to move on somehow and let these feelings pass?" The boy held his head in his hands. Great, I just turned a once happy boy depressed thanks to one of my sessions. Maybe I wasn't as good a counselor as I thought. This reminds me of that one counselor from spirit week, the one that was hired before Mr. She was really crazy. What was her name? Penelope Specter? No, it was Spectra. Penelope Spectra.

"Your friends got mad at you for asking someone else out, right? No other reason?" I asked.

He nodded, not understanding what I was hinting at. It wasn't hard to guess that the girl was most likely jealous and had some feelings for him, but I couldn't just spell it out for him. There were some things the boy would have to figure out on his own.

"How did your little confession turn out anyway?"

A smile spread across his face until the kid seemed to realize that and it slowly morphed into a frown, though with much effort on his part. "She said no."

Normally I would've expected as much, except the kid appeared to be lying. They were keeping it on the down low after all then. I needed to tell the boy that this could only end in disaster. Dating in secrecy never ends well. I could even point him over to Romeo and Juliet. Glancing at his fingers restlessly tapping on the arm to his chair, I realized that he probably wasn't a reader. This didn't mean I couldn't say anything. I almost did too, until I finally realized how happy happy this ordeal was making him. What was the say? Better to loved and lost than to never love at all. Something like that anyway.

The kid left soon after and I returned to my work, patiently waiting on the next student to come in.

A day later a local news agency caught Danny Phantom making out with Paulina on top of the school building. Unsurprisingly it became the front headline for every news outlet in the area. I could've sworn it even reached a few national ones. I was expecting to see the boy again, heartbroken like many teenagers before him, I even prepared another counseling session just in case, but the boy seemed virtually unfazed by the whole affair. In fact, he seemed even happier. Did the Hispanic girl cheating on him somehow make him happy? The only possible answer I came up with was that the boy finally came to his senses and asked out that Sam girl. That hypothesis was quickly shot down though when I found the two teens glaring at each other with a poor African American boy stuck in between. How I pitied the boy.

It was then that I approached Mr. Lancer, the English teacher for the kid's grade, and asked him for the identity of the raven haired boy. True, I probably could've asked the boy directly, but I felt this was more convenient. Danny Fenton. That was the name I was told. That meant he was the son of two ghost hunters. So Danny's crush was seen making out with his parent's number one enemy and he didn't even care? That logic was more than a little faulty.

Months and month came with nothing interesting happening. The only abnormal thing worth mentioning was the boy, Danny Fenton, growing even happier. That was easily explained by him and the Sam girl fixing there friendship though, even if they still appeared a little strained at times. I was even beginning to write the whole situation off as over and done with. Perhaps that's what made the boy's sudden appearance in my room so surprising.

A blonde girl was sitting across from my desk, crying into a tissue over a divorce her parents were getting. The two adults couldn't stand each other anymore and now they were fighting over custody of their daughter. She finally calmed down enough to speak when Danny barged into the room.

"Hey," he greeted, only to notice the tissues littering the room along with the once more sobbing girl. He seemed to get even more nervous when I accidentally glared sent a glare the boy's way. I really need to control my emotions better. It took another half hour for me to calm the girl down again and help her out. Finally I was able to call Danny back into the room.

"Sorry about interrupting things," the boy said. "I'm not the most observant of people.

I waved him off. "It's not me you should apologize to. Just apologize to the girl after you leave and we'll never have to talk about this again."

The kid shifted in his seat awkwardly as we let the silence of the room take over.

"So," the kid spoke. "I was just wondering how you know when you love someone. What does it feel like exactly?"

A normal question for once. Unfortunately, the implications of this meant he was still having this secret relationship, a worrying thought. Isn't it my duty to stop him before he gets hurt? At least try to get him to ask her if they can make whole relationship public? That would save some broken hearts later on. Then again, he just got down with one student crying in his office. He really didn't want another. This could wait a week. "Well you like the woman for who she is," I answered, "and learn to tolerate, and possibly even like, some of her flaws."

"So a person can't love someone else if they don't know them in their entirety?"

He was still keeping secrets from her? It doesn't matter how man arrows Cupid shot at them, this relationship wasn't very healthy. "Truthfully? Tell the girl whatever you're keeping from her. If it's important, she needs to know. If it isn't, it's nothing to worry about. Either way secrets and lies are rarely good, and the truth always finds a way to come out."

Danny didn't seem to like my answer. "Yeah," he replied glumly. "You're right."

That was the first time I ever wanted to take back the advice I gave.

A video of Danny Phantom fighting more viciously than he ever fought before soon surface on the internet. His angry green eyes during the video frightened even me. That was also one of the few videos in a long time where Paulina wasn't spotted with him in some way. Usually they stuck together like glue. The news speculated that the ghost was letting off some steam after a nasty breakup with the girl. It was for the best of course. A ghost and a human were never meant to be together in the first place. Strange how a part of me felt sorry for the pair.

Danny returned to school the next day looking worse for the wear. He looked like he didn't get a lick of sleep last night. Apparently the ghost wasn't the only one who went through a bad break up. The boy didn't see me this time. No, instead he avoided me like the plague. I wouldn't lie and say I wasn't a little hurt by his actions. This would later cause me to second guess the advice I gave yet again. It was possible I could've told him something different, something to keep their relationship relatively stable.

The teen eventually passed Paulina in the hallway, the girl absentmindedly glancing at him with pain filled eyes before returning her attention to whatever her group was talking about. Even then though she didn't seem to be paying attention, more off in her own little world.

Admittedly I thought pain was an odd emotion seen coming from her, especially because she was the one that probably broke up with him and not vice versa. She must've really cared for the boy before they broke up. Half of me wished they would've lasted; the other half knew this was inevitable from the start. An emotion like love is not for the naive. To feel love you must give your all. That's where Danny made his mistake. There was no way they would ever truly be able to love each other if he wasn't showing her his whole self. Most likely she felt betrayed by him now.

In my head I was starting to wonder if this fell into the same category as the typical teenage drama. Even with the odd coincidences and questions that still bugged me to this day, this ended up being just a couple whose breakup was an inevitability.

It was the next day, a sunny Friday, when Danny returned once more. He was a wreck, all red faced and teary eyed. Strange how I found him to be the most at peace I've ever seen him. I blamed it on the bright sunshine illuminating my entire room. Granted, he was longer happy but still at peace. He sat down in his usual chair, preventing the tears from overwhelming him like they must've done before. "I just wanted to thank you for all your help," he said. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be where I am today."

There was such sincerity and conviction in his voice that I couldn't help but grimace. I screwed things up for the kid, that was for sure. Telling him a lie would've been better than the advice I gave. Even if they were never going to last, I could've let them have their bliss for a little longer. "Danny, right now you need the company of your friends. I'm afraid I have nothing else to offer you right now. How are you and Sam doing?"

He rubbed his wet eyes. "We're patching things up, I guess, slowly but surely. She ended up being right too. Before this all began she told me I was going to end up with my heart broken. How was the only part she got wrong."

"What did Paulina say when you guys ended it?" I asked.

His fingers twitched as if trying to find something to occupy their attention. "Sh-She said that she couldn't trust me. She couldn't trust me not to lie to her or keep secrets from her," the boy let out a pitiful laugh full of only despair and self loathing, which made the peace I felt coming off of him even odder. "Paulina was so devastated when I told her. I couldn't bear to think that I brought her to such misery. What's worse was that it wasn't what I said that brought her such pain, it was the fact that I all but betrayed her in keeping it all a secret for so long. We might still be together if only I told her sooner."

The sunlight coming through my window was beginning to annoy me now. Why didn't I have some sort of shade to block it? It was way too bright and wasn't helping the mood at all. As I set a box in front of the window in an effort to block out the sun, a question kept playing in my mind. "Did you decide if you loved her?"

He was startled out of his own thoughts before nodding vigorously. "With all my heart."

The perfect teenage response, I sighed. "No, I'm not entirely sure of that. She'll always have a piece of your heart though, just like you'll always have a piece of hers. Just stick close to your friends and you'll be fine. Also, try not to upset that Sam girl again."

He grinned at me. It wasn't an easy thing for him to make, and it definitely didn't look natural, but he made it nonetheless. "Thanks for everything, sir."

I smiled back in reply and he walked out of my office soon after that. As he left, I felt like that was the last time he'd ever appear in my office ever again.

When Danny first came to me, I fully expected him to get his heart broken. I figured there was no way Paulina would reciprocate his feelings for her. Whatever he did surprisingly worked. Later I expected her to be the cause of their eventual downfall. Again I was wrong. Finally, I expected her to remain stagnant, unchanged by the events that unfolded. That was my third wrong. Just as Danny had to face the consequences of his mistakes, so had Pauline, and these mistakes would shape who they are in the future.

* * *

 **This is... I'm not really sure honestly. I got the idea after rewriting the first chapter for Make a Wish and the idea kind of stuck with me. I tried to humanize Paulina as best I could and just write what would happen if they ever seriously dated. Of course I'd love your feedback, so please leave a review if you can. Also, thanks to my beta for looking over this story with me.**


End file.
